In Time for Christmas, Orcas Revive a Festive Fashion Trend: Dead Salmon for a Hat

It’s been nearly 40 years since killer whales off the west coast of North America were spotted wearing dead salmon on their heads. No one knows why this whacky trend began or why it ended, but we do know it’s back.

The salmon hat craze was first observed in 1987 when a female orca in Puget Sound was seen sporting a dead fish on her snout. Her pod-mates picked up the trend and within a few weeks it spread to orcas in other pods. Fashion statement? Means of communication (“Plenty of salmon here!”)? Mass hysteria?

Now they’re doing it again, and in the same region. Marine biologists have speculated that the whales could be showing off, or storing food to eat later, or possibly signalling some kind of group identity within these particular orca communities (the natty displays have not been observed elsewhere in the world). Maybe they’re just into retro fashion.

Researchers have some observational tools at their disposal that were not available in the 1980s – namely drones, which are now being deployed to watch these cetacean fashion mavens more closely.

Orcas, or killer whales, are not actually whales but are definitely killers. They are in fact the largest species of dolphin, apex predators that hunt in coordinated groups. A voracious pod can easily make a meal of other predators – even of great white sharks.

They’re not just killers, though, they’re also mischievous jokesters. Orcas have been ramming, and in some cases sinking, leisure boats off the Iberian coast for a few years now. Their motivation, as with fish-hat wearing, remains a mystery.

If the Puget Sound killer whales are cavorting about with dead salmon on their heads just for attention … Well then, mission accomplished.

Photo credit: Jim Pasola / Orca Network